I'm not saying his Worlds skate was horrible. Just saying it wasn't that great. Artur Gachinski, when he's on, can easily crush that skate. Sadly, he hasn't been on for a while (as I've admitted in my previous posts). Popping that quad into a single (should it even be called a single? It was basically a hop) is very, very costly under COP. As Carol Lane repeated non-stop during the Olympics broadcast--singling is the kiss of death. So yes, I think he's lucky to be in fourth place. It's better to plan and execute two quads properly than it is to plan three and single one of them (and in this case, only execute one quad). In fact, Kovtun seems to have this habit of popping quads into singles. His instincts are all wrong for COP--better to have Hanyu's "rotate and fall" instincts no matter how ungainly it looks.

I commend him for going from 17th to 4th. One okay performance at a post-Olympics Worlds doesn't mean he's suddenly the epitome of consistency. Regardless of the circumstances under which he has entered seniors, he has not been consistent thus far. Maybe he can grow into a consistent skater. Who knows. But the Worlds performance isn't enough to convince me of that.

And yes, I find Artur's skating vastly more enjoyable than Kovtun's. Obviously our tastes are different--I'm not gonna dictate yours and you're not gonna change mine. Not sure what either Curry or Plush has to do with this.

I'm not saying his Worlds skate was horrible. Just saying it wasn't that great. Artur Gachinski, when he's on, can easily crush that skate. Sadly, he hasn't been on for a while (as I've admitted in my previous posts). Popping that quad into a single (should it even be called a single? It was basically a hop) is very, very costly under COP. As Carol Lane repeated non-stop during the Olympics broadcast--singling is the kiss of death. So yes, I think he's lucky to be in fourth place. It's better to plan and execute two quads properly than it is to plan three and single one of them (and in this case, only execute one quad). In fact, Kovtun seems to have this habit of popping quads into singles. His instincts are all wrong for COP--better to have Hanyu's "rotate and fall" instincts no matter how ungainly it looks.

I commend him for going from 17th to 4th. One okay performance at a post-Olympics Worlds doesn't mean he's suddenly the epitome of consistency. Regardless of the circumstances under which he has entered seniors, he has not been consistent thus far. Maybe he can grow into a consistent skater. Who knows. But the Worlds performance isn't enough to convince me of that.

And yes, I find Artur's skating vastly more enjoyable than Kovtun's. Obviously our tastes are different--I'm not gonna dictate yours and you're not gonna change mine. Not sure what either Curry or Plush has to do with this.

This criticism is unfair because Kovtun is a few years younger than Arthur. Give him time to develop artistry.

Kovtun's 18 right now. I prefer the skates Artur churned out at 18 over Kovtun's current skates. Though, obviously, Kovtun is skating better than Artur right now. Hard to even judge artistically because Artur's technical struggles are (inevitably) cutting into his overall performance.

Once again, never said Kovtun can't develop. I'm waiting for it. But can't go counting the chickens before they hatch.

Um, I enjoy what I've seen of Kulik's skating, and I think he's a great Olympic champion. I'm not sure if that's good enough for "fan." I had no idea about the connection between my username and him! The username actually comes from somewhere else entirely. I know zero Russian, so I had no idea what his name meant.